There’s not been many weird little special bets but I did find this one.

Disney now have a habit of adapting cartoons into live action films. Beauty and the Beast is next to be released but Paddy Power are taking bets on the sequel to Mary Poppins.

It’s set to star Emily Blunt, Colin Firth and Meryl Streep and it will be direct by Rob Marshall. It will tell the tale of Mary Poppins returning to visit a gown up Jane and Mary Poppins following a loss.

There’s odds on offered if it will win an Oscar or if it will win an Oscar for it’s music. What caught my eye was odds on how much money it will make.

Before you go wagering your mortgage on it, the aim is to make $500 million by the end of 2020. The questions is, can it do that?

Here’s how Rob Marshall’s last films performed at the worldwide box office in order of most recent release.

Into The Woods $213,116,401
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides $1,045,713,802
Nine $53,998,866
Memoirs of A Geisha $162,242,962
Chicago $306.776.732

Now here’s how Disney’s live action remakes have fared, again most recent first.

Marshall did well with his last fantasy musical Into the Woods that was based upon material not as well known as Mary Poppins. His Pirates film did really well even if the reviews we’re that strong. Music Nine didn’t do as well as Chicago which first made his name and reputation but sandwiched in between was Memoirs of a Geisha.

Disney live action remakes have been a bit topsy turvey. What I would say is when they go for more well known films such as the original Alice and especially Jungle Book then they have a habit of striking gold. Even when the film isn’t as good as they would have hoped such as Maleficent then they still manage to make quite a bit at the box office.

So Marshall can handle big budget musicals and he can handle well established characters. Out of eight live action films so far Disney have managed to hit that total in three attempts with a narrow miss.

I’d say it’s worth bearing in mind that Disney have a habit of making strong female lead films just now, from the like of Frozen to Maleficent, they should know how to make something like this. Also, you can imagine the soundtrack being a bit of a stand out.

What Disney need to watch is that it’s being released just after another one of their movies, the Han Solo Star Wars spin off. Also film at the end of the year tend to be award driven flicks.

But I think there’s a chance it will make over $500 million by the year 2020. You just need to way up if it’s worth waiting that long…